Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of computer file paths, and, more particularly, website uniform resource locators.
Webpages are typically accessed by entering the webpage's uniform resource locator (URL) into a web browser. In colloquial terms, a URL is often referred to as a web address when the URL designates the location of a webpage. Although some URLs are short, others can be quite long (i.e. the URL of a webpage buried deep within a complex website). URLs typical comprise three or four parts—1. A scheme, 2. a host, 3. a path, and 4. a query string. For a URL, the scheme is usually “HTTP” or “HTTPS.” The host name identifies the host which holds the resource being accessed, i.e. www.[host-name].com. The path follows the host name and identifies specific resources within the host website to be accessed. i.e. www.[host-name].com/path1/path2/etc. Finally, a query string (if one exists), follows the path.
Often times, users of computing devices find it useful to share URLs with one another. This is typically done using email, short message service (SMS or text) messages, or multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages. Additionally, users may wish to share URLs via twitter or other social networking websites. Some of these methods of sharing (specifically SMS and twitter) greatly restrict the number of characters that can be shared. For example, SMS messages are limited to 160 characters. As such, without URL shortening, some URLs may not be able to be shared via these services. There exist several URL “shorteners” (i.e. the Bitly™ URL shortening service provided by Bitly, Inc., the TinyURL™ URL shortening service provided by TinyURL LLC, the Ow.ly URL shortening service provided by Hootsuite Media Inc., the Ht.ly URL shortening service provided by Hootsuite Media Inc., the Google URL Shortner™ URL shortening service provided by Google Inc., etc.). Typically, a user will shorten a URL by visiting a website (such as by entering “bit.ly.com,” “tinyurl.com,” “ow.ly,” “ht.ly,” or “goo.gl” into the web browser address bar for any of the aforementioned URL shortening services), and entering the URL they wish to shorten into a designated URL shortening section on the website. The URL shortener may then generate a new, significantly shorter URL.